Sunday 5-12-04

Today Niki's family decided to take a visit to the Turkish occupied north of Cyprus. For those that don't know, Turkey invaded the Northern third of Cyprus in 1974, and only recently (about 6 months ago) re-opened it to visitors from the south. (more on the ethno-political situation in another - longer - blog post).First stop was a visit to the village that niki's mother (Maria) is originally from, Kethrae. In 1974, Maria & Barnabas were engaged, and had just finished building the house they hoped to live in when war broke out & they had to flee to the south. We saw the house, and met the people who now own it. They were very welcoming, and I have to admit, I had to choke back a tear or two as I watched Barnabas embrace the Turkish-Cypriot couple and talk about peace & how their country was abused by foreign powers, and short sighted radicals on both sides of the Turkish/Greek equation. We walked around the village with Barnabas showing me where different members of the family used to live before the war. Next we visited the church of St Barnabas which has now been turned into a museum. Finally we drove out to a place called Famagusta to see some ancient Greek ruins kown as Salamina.